Ads on This Blog?

I had never imagined that an advertising institute (company? agent? or just scum?) would ever be interested in putting an ad here and having people clicking it then pay me... That's why I am so surprised when I saw an email sent to me and offered that like few days ago. And I think I should take this serious now.

This blog is not quite used for community purpose I should say, that I seldom tell people I had such a blog. There is a link on my Facebook profile but it seems to be the only one and I would say few people had ever tried to click on it.

I have completely no idea how many clicks I can get on this blog daily, I would suppose less than 5 myself because there had no one ever been commenting here... but I think it's time I get a counter here before I go for an ad. I had no interest on attracting people to gather here anyway, this blog is pretty private. And I liked it this way myself.

The first-of-all thing of cooking

Well Been cooking for myself and housemate for quite a while. This is what I've just realized about learning to cook, start from the most basic and simple stuff. For me, it was cooking chopped onion.

Slowly-cooked onion is the base of many sauces and soups. It is so simple and variable, heat up a saucepan with some olive oil, turn down the heat immediately after adding chopped onion, then cover the pan and watch the cover throbbing. You can now prepare other stuff for the sauce, because it takes quite a while to get to that golden, soft and opaque point.

I just learn after several times of cooking that I know what to add in and what not to (well this should partially count for the inspiration from Ratatouille). Ground pepper, cream, mushrooms, permesan, blue cheese...

That's how it works, though I don't really know how...

Drought is Over

AT LAST!! After continuously affected by a significant La Nina phenomenum, there are quite a few of preticipation since my coming back to Melbourne. I see the fountain in Lincoln Square working again today, which was wonderful. Shutting down those fountains used to be the measure that the government had been taken for saving water. And I am so glad that they are working again, really. Melbourne had finally stepped out of drought, somehow, after seven years of dehydration, after driven hundreds of farmers out of their farms to make a living in some way else.

But this La Nina didn't do all good. China has just recovered from the worst snow disaster for at least 50 years nationwide.

Podspeakers by Scandyna

Well been spending lots of money on this cutie lately, just so irresistible.

Podspeakers are namely for iPods, unfortunately I don't own one and not keen to one, at least at the moment. I was just getting this for my laptop. This is actually the first version of Micropod, not the more well-known Micropod SE, which the cone is painted yellow and don't get that bar on the treble. Anyway buying an older version is a matter of budget. a pair of SE costs 279AUD, and you have to get an amplifier for it as well(The Amp from Scandyna costs 849AUD), the SE Active which has built-in amplifier is not found in Australia... This older version is 299AUD a pair plus a Microsub(calling itself "Micro"sub, it weighs over 8kg), where the amplifier builds in. I don't need a V-Dock or something like that anyway because I don't have an iPod, though a V-Dock with Micropod SE is only 399AUD.

These cuties are less than 20cm high spikes inclusive, but when it comes to sounds, they are incredible. Sounds from it is full and filling, no one would believe the speaker is that tiny without actually meeting these cuties. It was immediately after I hear the sound that I feel guilty establishing it with those stock cables. i ran to the stores the next day, got a Belkin transmission cable(17.95AUD in JB HiFi) and 4 metres of Monster speaker cable(10AUD per metre in Harvey-Norman), they work well on those cuties, which was great.

And I've decided what to get for upgrading them even before I get bored of them... But anyway, The Drop is not that affordable to me, at least not at the moment. So this would remain a target lol~

A Book That Mainland Chinese Should See

Despite not agreeing some extreme parlance, I should still recommend this book to all Mainland Chinese, especially those who had gone through elementary to high school in China.

This book is originally written to fight back those so-called "Young Cynics" who yells every single second on the internet calling for Chinese military invasion of other countries, especially Japan, and boasts their ultra-nationalism, in order to remind them who Chinese people and Chinese culture really are.

The book emphasizes that Chinese education and media system are simply misleading everyone in China, by exaggerating the ancient achievements - technology, military and philosophy - that merely exist as the top of the world in that era, with comparisons to the western world at the same time, clearly telling you that China has nothing to be proud of on all these areas. And actually, this pride is exactly where those "Young Cynics" derives from.

Well, to be proud of our country, we should, but please do not be proud of all those stupid lies that the Party tells you just to make you proud, they are actually fooling you. Unfortunately not many people in China know that through their whole life, apparently, or there won't be that many "Young Cynics"hanging around the internet.

It is good to feel like "No.1", but what if not? There's always only one No.1 anyway. Just don't fool yourself to take those "No.1"s that are not actually yours and shamelessly showing them off to others!

Not being No.1, so what? Know where the real No.1 is and chase it, it is the No.1 who is most likely to get lost because it has no target to chase, try a shortcut to overtake it instead of standing there and blurbing your ancient prides, while lagging further.

And one word to those "Young Cynics", DO SOMETHING! Don't tell me all what you are doing is those eloquent psycholagnies on the internet. Seeing how apathetic a "Young Cynic" in real life would be to anyone except him/herself would cast a chill all over anyone who thinks that China would have a tomorrow somehow.

To find out who you really are is the main reason to read this book. It was published in Taiwan by Avanguard. I got mine here, pretty easy actually and not expensive, would be less than 15 USD freight inclusive. Just never suppose it publish legally within Mainland China anyway.